1. Writing Arguments in New Media PI: Krista Homicz Faculty Mentors: Dr. Barry Fishman, Dr. Carl Berger, Dr. Anne Gere, Dr. Anne Curzan

2. Presentation Overview Contextual BackgroundStudy Design My graduate program and teaching Approaches to teaching argument Teaching composition with technology Research questions Methodology – context, participants, measures and instruments, timeline Student examples PPI pilot design and results

3. Joint Ph.D. Program in English and Education JPEE doctoral students pursue interdisciplinary interests in the fields of both English and Education and design their own pathways for integrating each into their work. Throughout their doctoral work, JPEE students teach in both fields to research and practice their evolving philosophy of teaching. My work combines both the theory and teaching of composition in English departments and the designing of educational curriculum to help others teach writing with technology.

4. University Writing Courses Most universities require students to take writing courses in their undergraduate curriculum with the expectation that these courses will help students practice the expository and argumentative skills that will help them to write for other university courses and to be productive communicators within society.

5. Required Writing Courses At the University of Michigan, students are required to take two writing courses:  Lower level: English 124, “College Writing: Writing and Literature" or 125, "College Writing," which focus mainly on expository writing skills  Upper level: English 225, "Argumentative Writing," which focuses mainly on the elements of evidence and argument

6. Approaches for Teaching Argument Formal Logic Rhetoric Informal Logic Stasis Theory Visual Rhetoric

7. Texts that Make Arguments Words Hypertexts Still Images Moving Images (Video) Moving Images (Video) In a media-driven society, arguments come in many forms of media. For students to be productive communicators and contributors in a media-driven society, they need to learn how to “write” arguments in these new media.

8. “What are we likely to carry with us when we ask that our relationship with all technologies should be like that we have with the technology of printed words?” ( Wysocki and Johnson-Eilola, “Blinded by the Letter”)

9. “For students who have grown up in a technology- saturated and an image-rich culture, questions of communication and composition will absolutely include the visual, not as attendant to the verbal but as complex communication intricately related to the world around them.” (George, “Visual Communication in the Teaching of Writing”) Images from http://www.adbusters.org

10. Recommendation for Module Design for Teaching Writing Arguments with New Media  I propose an “image-text” approach to teaching argument that asks students to inquire into the relationship between the image and the text.  Students should be producers and not just consumers of new media.

11. Questions for Research Will an “image-text” approach to teaching argument writing facilitate students' learning about how to creatively and responsibly write arguments in new media? Can I create materials that allow other instructors to teach this approach to writing arguments?

12. Methodology Context: 5 sections of English 225 Participants: 75-110 undergraduate students (total from 5 sections) 5 Instructors with experience in teaching English 225

13. Key Evaluation Indicators and Instruments Student Attitudes Participant Perception Indicator (PPI) Student Learning Rubric-driven analysis of artifacts students create Instructor Attitudes Interviews Classroom Enactment Observation

14. Timeline Fall ’03  Developing and piloting materials with my own English 225 class  Recruiting instructor participants for Winter ’04 Winter ’04  Pre-activity with instructors  Pre-activity with students  Pre-test, mid-test, and post-test of student attitudes (PPI)  Observation during classroom enactment  Interviews with instructors  Artifact analysis

15. Examples of Student Work Image-based argument Image-based argument Image-based argument Image-based argument Image-based argument Image-based argument

16. PPI Pilot Design and Results Assignment Objectives Students will learn how to employ:  Strategies of argument  Images for visualizing argument strategies  New media for creating and composing images  Ethical standards of argument

17. Question 1: Compose a visual argument

18. Question 2: Maintain a balance in the visual argument between truth and persuasion

19. Question 5: Present visual information in a manner that shows that the information is credible

20. Question 20: Be strategic about the arrangement of image(s) and text on a page

21. Question 16: Shape ideas into a visual argument

22. Works Cited George, Diana. “From Analysis to Design: Visual Communication in the Teaching of Writing.” College Composition and Communication 54 (2002): 11-39. “Jammer’s Gallery.” Adbusters. Accessed Dec. 1, 2003: http://adbusters.org/creativeresistance/jamgallery/index.html. http://adbusters.org/creativeresistance/jamgallery/index.html Wysocki, Anne Frances, and Johndan Johnson-Eilola. “Blinded by the Letter: Why Are We Using Literacy As a Metaphor for Everything Else?” Passions, Pedagogies, and Twenty-First Century Technologies. Ed. Gail Hawisher and Cynthia Selfe. Utah State UP, 1999. 349-68.